Although strong competition of vaudeville, moving pictures, radio and television undoubtedly has affected the legitimate theater, the strong desire for legitimate acting still remains and has resulted in the formation of summer stock companies and numerous Little Theater groups throughout Virginia. Such groups have become very active and are found in many cities including Alexandria, Danville, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond and Staunton. Virginia colleges and universities also keep the theater alive by sponsoring dramatics classes, workshops and plays.
Two recent developments of the theater in Virginia are the formation of the Barter Theater Group and the presentation of historical plays. The Barter Theater is part of the Barter Colony located at Abingdon, and this colony consists of the theater, a workshop, an inn and a dormitory. The colony was established by Robert and Helen F. Porterfield in 1932 as an attempt to create renewed interest in legitimate play-acting. An original, unique feature of the theater and the activity which was directly responsible for its name was the original ticket purchase price which could be obtained in exchange for produce or edible commodities—similar to the old-fashioned barter system of exchange; at present, however, theater patrons pay money rather than produce for their tickets. During the winter months, the cast travels in other nearby states as well as in Virginia. An annual Barter Theater award was established by Robert Porterfield in 1939 for the "finest performance by an actor or actress on the current Broadway stage." Such well-known individuals as Laurette Taylor, Dorothy Stickney, Mildred Natwick, Ethel Barrymore, Tallulah Bankhead, Louis Calhern, Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda, Frederic March, Shirley Booth, Cornelia Otis Skinner, David Wayne, Rosalind Russell, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman and Ralph Bellamy have received this award. The Barter Theater Award consists of an acre of land located near Abingdon, a world-famed Virginia ham and a silver octagonal platter "to eat it off." In addition, the recipient is given the opportunity to nominate two young dramatic actors at New York City auditions for acting positions at the Barter Theater. The Barter Theater, now recognized as the State Theater of Virginia, is believed to be the only professional theater in the United States which receives financial aid from a state budget.
Since 1947, an outstanding play, "The Common Glory," written by Pulitzer Prize Winner Paul Green, has been presented in the summer at the Lake Matoaka Amphitheater in Williamsburg. The theme of "The Common Glory" is based upon important historical events from 1774 through 1783 with the famous comments of such American statesmen as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Patrick Henry. The realistic performance of this theme in the historical outdoor, natural setting in Williamsburg near historical Jamestown and Yorktown is an experience the audience long remembers. Paul Green also wrote "The Founders," another historical drama in honor of the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.
Music and drama—from both the creative sense and the participation sense—still remain an active phase of culture in Virginia.
Education
In colonial days in Virginia, education was considered a personal family matter. A public school, as the term is understood now, was non-existent. Since England had no national public system of education until 1833, the Virginia colonists, of whom a majority were of English descent, did not have any heritage for schools for the general public. Later, the geographical distances between the plantations and the gradual development of social classes tended to discourage public education. The typical child who received formal education was taught by the family members, privately tutored, apprenticed for farming, attended a "Pay School" or "Old Field School" (a community school taught by a teacher paid either by the individual parents or by a particular patron and located on relatively poor agricultural land), enrolled in a Latin Grammar School or attended a fashionable school in London. Only the boys received the formal education and the girls learned the proper techniques of performing household tasks and of being a gracious hostess. Many poor children had no formal education of any kind.
In 1634, the Syms Free School in Elizabeth City County was organized as a local, free school as a direct result of provisions of a will whereby two hundred acres of land were provided and free milk and income from eight cows were included for the support of the school. Twenty-five years later, Dr. Thomas Eaton of the same county also endowed a free school and left a five hundred acre estate with buildings and livestock as the endowment. The endowment also provided for the maintenance of an "able schoolmaster to educate and teach the children born within the County of Elizabeth." Later, the two schools were combined and, by the beginning of the Twentieth Century, they had been incorporated into the public school system as the Syms-Eaton Academy.
A few church schools were organized, but they reached a very small number of children with their enrollment. Orphans and poor children often received the benefits of apprenticeship training in trade or industrial schools and eventually had an opportunity to learn to read and write. By 1775, there were nine free schools endowed by private philanthropists for the poor and needy. Public schools at this time in Virginia were considered as schools for paupers, orphans and needy financial cases rather than schools for the benefit of the general public. Community tax-supported schools for the children of the general public were practically unknown.
Until the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, the slaves—both Negro and Indian—were usually taught religious training and some primary learning, the amount and type of training depending upon the individual master. After certain sensational articles tended to cause discontent and confusion in the minds of some of these individuals which resulted in sporadic raids and open dissatisfaction with living conditions, the legislature of Virginia passed a law making it illegal to teach any slave how to read, write or do arithmetic.
By the middle of the Nineteenth Century, private academies and seminaries (for girls) began to replace the early Latin-Grammar schools. The subjects of English, Latin, science, mathematics, public speaking, spelling and penmanship were taught. The fine arts subjects such as painting and music were stressed in the seminaries. Some of the early academies included Prince Edward Academy (later became Hampden-Sydney Academy and, eventually, Hampden-Sydney College), Liberty Hall Academy (later, Washington College and, eventually, Washington and Lee University), Fredericksburg Academy (later, Fredericksburg College), Alexandria Academy, Shepherdstown Academy (later, Shepherdstown College and, eventually, State Normal School in West Virginia), Central Academy (later, Central College and, eventually, the University of Virginia), Richmond Seminary (later, Richmond College), Salem Academy (later, Roanoke College), Monongahela Academy (later, West Virginia University) and Marshall Academy (later, Marshall College and, eventually, a State Normal School in Huntington, West Virginia). These academies are considered forerunners of public high schools in Virginia because, even as late as the period immediately prior to the War between the States, there were very few public schools of any type in Virginia.